Thursday, April 24, 2008

Discipline

Song: DisciplineArtist: Nine Inch NailsAlbum: ?

So this is what we can begin to expect… yesterday a new song became available on Nine Inch Nails Website for free download. This came two weeks after a cryptic message came up on the site that simply read “two weeks.” Also with the new download (which you can also remix yourself) was a message that something else was coming on May 5th. So mysterious!

After Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” digital download stunt (and rumored wild success) Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails announced that he soon would be following their lead and moving into a more digital way of releasing material. (As well as operate sans record deal.) He was most likely tired of the way his records have been leaking and wanted a bit more control. Reznor wants more control? So out of character right? Well he’s certainly taken the bull by the horns, already releasing a download-it-first from his website instrumental “album” entitles “Ghosts I-IV,” that contains 36 tracks broken up into four “divisions.” It was $5 for the download, $10 for a double CD, $75 for a deluxe set, and then $300 for an ‘Ultra Deluxe’ set with a limited run of 2500 copies. (That sold out immediately when it was announced… do the math on just that. Bling!)

So it sounds like an entire new NIN album is just weeks away… and with the complicated marketing plan for “Year Zero,” the last album, he is fully embracing the web as a way to sell music but more importantly getting the listener directly involved with the music, and in “Year Zero’s” case… the actual concept of the album.

But is it any good?

Well after a few listens to “Discipline,” it sound like… well another Nine Inch Nails tune. I liked “Year Zero” and “With Teeth” before it, but it certainly didn’t grab me the way that his first three records did. Is that a product of youthful adoration, or the actual quality of the music? I’m really not sure. And while I don’t have time to follow the labyrinth of websites and MP3’s found in bathrooms like he’s done recently… I am very interested in how he is selling his music, without a record label. This seems like the future!